The Jane Austen Book Club (Penguin, 2004) is set in Sacramento Valley, California. The group leader and instigator, Jocelyn, invites five friends to join her in an all-Austen-all-the-time book club.
The Book Club Members
Jocelyn starts the group and manages everyone. She has never been married. She runs a kennel where she breeds Rhodesians Ridgeback dogs and takes part in dog shows with some of her dogs.
Her best friend Sylvia has been married for 32 years, but her husband has recently asked by for a divorce. One aim of the group is to distract Sylvia from her relationship issues, so Jocelyn chooses Emma as the first novel for the group to read as ‘no one has ever read it and wished to be married’.
Sixty-seven year old Bernadette is the oldest member of the group. Allegra is Sylvia’s thirty-year-old lesbian daughter and Prudie is the youngest at 28. She is the only other married member of the group, besides Sylvia, and is a French teacher at the local high school.
The only male member of the group is Grigg, who is known only by Jocelyn. Jocelyn’s well-known matchmaking tendencies have the others in the group wondering which member he is intended for.
Plot of The Jane Austen Book Club
This six people of varying ages, life-stages and backgrounds take turns hosting the book club meeting in their homes. Emma is the first novel to be studied, followed by Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion.
As each book is read and discussed, the life of one member of the group is highlighted. Each person finds parallels in one of the novels for either past or present relationships. The members of the group gradually get to know each other better. Relationships are strained, and personal issues are resolved as the storylines of Austen’s novels are reflected into the lives of the book club members.
An Enjoyable Book for Austen Fans and General Readers
The Jane Austen Book Club is not an in depth study of the works of Jane Austen and any reader looking for probing and academic discussions of the merits and deeper meanings of Austen’s work will be disappointed. It does, however, ask some thought provoking questions for any fan of Austen and her work. The book club does discuss the novels that they read each month and the diverse personalities and lifestyles of the group members provide some interesting contrasting and conflicting opinions.
There are a variety of interesting and obscure facts about Austen’s novels and life scattered throughout the book, particularly in the three sections at the back of the book. ‘The Novels’ provides a brief summary of the storyline of each of the books the group studies. ‘The Response’ offers quotes from friends, family members and contemporaries of Austen on her works. The final section offers a few book club discussion questions for each chapter suitable for groups or individual readers who would like to think more deeply about some of the themes of the book.
With a combination of light-hearted moments and thoughtful reflections on life and relationships, this is an enjoyable book and particularly interesting for any fan of Jane Austen’s work. This novel is a little more thought provoking than the average popular fiction work and should move well to the big screen in a movie format.
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